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Project Run & Play – Greenery

This week’s theme was just a color. Green. It’s the color of the year or something. My one problem was that I don’t have any green fabric. It isn’t that I don’t like green. It’s just that only very specific shades of it look good on me so I don’t tend to buy it. I’m trying not to buy fabric right now so I rummaged through my bag of old clothes. Stuff I kept for fabric, stuff I kept to copy the pattern (probably won’t happen though), and stuff I have no clue why I kept… And I found a one shouldered top I’d bought and only wore once or twice. Turns out I’m not one for one shouldered tops… The fabric was this gorgeous green silk. Slinky, soft, and machine washable. V approved.

I originally wanted to make her a Garden Party dress from Oliver + S. V loved the pattern and really wanted one. I was hoping I would have enough fabric for the skirt part. Nope. And I’d bought the pattern just for that! I’ll have to make it up with some other fabric. Pretty sure V will be okay with that… So I turned to the free Oliver + S pattern: the Popover sundress. I didn’t have enough length for a full dress but I did have enough for a top.

I wanted to use as much of the width as possible so I just cut the pattern piece as far from the fold as I could. I made an inverted pleat there. I didn’t press it so it’s a very soft fold.

The straps and top are leftover twill from my Juniper pants. (That reminds me I haven’t worn them in forever. They don’t fit right anymore. Should revisit the pattern and add a fly shield.) Anyway, the twill is a little heavier than ideal with the silk. Quilting cotton or even lawn would have been perfect. But this was the only fabric I had that sort of matched.

V wears leggings a lot so I decided to make some to go with the top. But with the top being so summery, I wanted something shorter, with open cuffs. I used my trusty Dressage Leggings and just eyeballed where to chop off the leg. Or rather, I just went with a page break on the leg. Each cuff is just a rectangle of the same width as the part where I chopped it off and twice the length I wanted + seam allowance. I folded it lengthwise wrong sides together and stitched the short ends. Turn to the right side, press, and sew onto the bottom opening, making sure to overlap the edges just a bit. Done!

The main legging is black cotton-spandex jersey and the grey dot is bamboo stretch jersey, slightly heavier. I would have loved to have the whole thing in dots. V does some awesome print mixing when left to her own devices. Seriously, her print mixing is adventurous yet aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to follow her lead but I didn’t have enough of the dots. At least I gave her some dots?

Though, right now, whether she has a lot of dots or not is irrelevant. She doesn’t like the shorter leggings and has assured me that she won’t wear them. I think she may pull them out when the weather warms up…

15 comments on “Project Run & Play – Greenery”

Looks like I’ve found another lady that enjoys “harvesting” fabric from other sources than a bolt of fabric. Your find looks great, as that soft and sweet top. I just finished a top made from a tye-dyed beach wrap for the Boho Week at Project Run and Play. Again, your top is top-notched! Deborah @ Sew Much To Give

Thank you, I didn’t even attempt to find the exact right green! I just went with what I had on hand since I had no time or desire for shopping. It feels good to finally use up some precious stuff and to reduce the stash.

I’m a huge fan of cuffs and pleats! I was going to gather the extra fabric at first but there it was, folded for cutting out and I just pinned it there pleated. I was a little amazed I hadn’t thought of it before since I love pleats and hate gathering! (I like the look of gathers, just not the action of gathering.)